As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Ian H. Kunkler, MB, BChir, MA, FRCR, and colleagues, the phase III PRIME II trial has shown a higher risk of local recurrence with the omission of adjuvant radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery in patients aged ≥ 65 years with hormone...
Patients with early-stage estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer who live in low-income neighborhoods may be more likely to have more aggressive tumor biology and significantly lower overall survival than those living in higher-income neighborhoods, according to a new study published by Ma...
In a retrospective, population-based, case-control study reported in JAMA Network Open, Larsen et al found that patients receiving anthracyclines for breast cancer or lymphoma were at a significantly elevated risk of congestive heart failure vs noncancer controls. No significant difference in risk...
In a single-institution study reported in JAMA Oncology, Eckhert et al found that patients with breast cancer from sex and gender minority groups experienced delayed diagnosis and had a shorter time to cancer recurrence compared to cisgender heterosexual patients. Study Details In the...
The latest analysis of the TROPiCS-02 breast cancer trial showed that the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan-hziy is effective in patients with a wide range of Trop-2 expression levels. The findings were reported at the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium by Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, ...
Suboptimal treatment, which often underlies worse outcomes for cancer in racial minorities, did not explain a recent finding from the landmark RxPONDER study: non-Hispanic Black women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, lymph node–positive breast cancer had worse outcomes compared with...
In an analysis of the SOFT trial, the Breast Cancer Index accurately identified premenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive early breast cancer who may benefit from ovarian function suppression in addition to adjuvant endocrine therapy. The findings were reported by Ruth O’Regan, MD, Chair...
In a study using data from the European OnCovid registry reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Tagliamento et al found that the severity of COVID-19 infection in patients with breast cancer decreased during the Omicron variant phase of the pandemic. In addition, a full vaccine course...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Vratislav Strnad, MD, PhD, and colleagues, 10-year outcomes in a phase III GEC-ESTRO (Groupe Européen de Curiethérapie and European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology) trial have shown no significant difference in ipsilateral breast cancer recurrence with...
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a new Global Breast Cancer Initiative Framework, providing a roadmap to attain targets to save 2.5 million lives from breast cancer by 2040. The new framework recommends that countries implement three pillars of health promotion—early detection,...
On February 3, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved sacituzumab govitecan-hziy (Trodelvy) for patients with unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic, hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative (immunohistochemistry [IHC] 0, IHC 1+, or IHC 2+ with a negative in situ...
The newly identified category of “HER2-low” breast cancer has raised many new issues in this malignancy now that the DESTINY Breast-041 trial determined that fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) may effectively treat this tumor. Among the issues are challenges in accurately identifying just...
Compared to other common supplemental screening methods, breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was superior at detecting breast cancer in patients with dense breasts, according to a new study published by Hussein et al in Radiology. Background Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer...
Age-based heuristics may lead to large differences in breast cancer treatment based on small differences in chronologic age, according to a new study published by Talcott et al in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • and Physics. Background Radiation therapy often is given...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Josephine M.N. Lopes Cardozo, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that a higher score on a polygenic risk score consisting of 313 common genetic variants (the PRS313) was generally associated with more favorable tumor characteristics in patients...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Aranzazu Fernandez-Martinez, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that several B-cell–related gene signatures provided better prediction of pathologic complete response and event-free survival than tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) levels among patients with...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Corey W. Speers, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the sensitivity to endocrine therapy (SET2,3) index and the 21-gene breast recurrence score (RS) were not correlated in defining prognosis among postmenopausal patients with estrogen...
On January 27, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved elacestrant (Orserdu) for postmenopausal women or adult men with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, HER2-negative, ESR1-mutated advanced or metastatic breast cancer with disease progression following at least one line of endocrine...
As reported in The Lancet by Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, and colleagues, updated results of the phase III DESTINY-Breast03 trial showed significantly improved overall survival with fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) vs ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) in patients with HER2-positive unresectable or...
Isaac Craig Henderson, MD, passed away at the age of 81 at his home in San Francisco on December 26, 2022, after a brief illness. Dr. Henderson was an internationally known medical oncologist who specialized in breast cancer, beginning his career at Harvard’s then-designated Sidney Farber Cancer...
Nancy Chan, MD, Director of Breast Cancer Clinical Research at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, New York, commented on the monarchE analysis for The ASCO Post. She noted that the study investigated the addition of adjuvant abemaciclib (an oral CDK4/6 inhibitor) to endocrine therapy in a...
Results of a planned interim overall survival analysis of the phase III monarchE trial offered further support for the addition of abemaciclib to adjuvant endocrine therapy for patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, node-positive, high-risk disease, according to Stephen R.D....
In the DBTUST study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Berg et al found that the addition of screening ultrasound to digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) improved detection of cancer in patients with dense breasts—but also increased the rate of false-positive findings. Study Details In the ...
In a phase II trial (S1416) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Rodler et al found that the addition of the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor veliparib to cisplatin significantly improved progression-free survival in patients with germline BRCA1/2 wild-type advanced triple-negative breast...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Meduri et al, a 5-year analysis from the phase III IRMA trial has shown higher rates of adverse cosmesis and some late toxicities with external-beam accelerated partial-breast irradiation (APBI) vs whole-breast irradiation (WBI) in women with stage ...
The combination of palbociclib and fulvestrant did not prolong progression-free survival compared to fulvestrant alone in patients with hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who had disease progression on prior treatment with a CDK4/6 inhibitor and endocrine therapy,...
Preserving fertility is a driving concern for many young women with breast cancer. Many of these women have hormone receptor–positive breast cancer and are treated with adjuvant endocrine therapy for 5 to 10 years, which is known to compromise fertility. Younger women who may want to take a break...
The oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) camizestrant improved progression-free survival, as compared with fulvestrant, in previously treated postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer in the phase II SERENA-2 trial. These results were reported at the 2022 San Antonio Breast...
A pilot study provides a signal that the novel HER2 antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd), is active in the neoadjuvant setting in patients with HER2-low breast cancer. Overall response rates were 75% with T-DXd alone and 63% when T-DXd was combined with endocrine therapy...
The combination of capivasertib, an AKT pathway inhibitor, plus fulvestrant, an estrogen receptor antagonist, significantly improved progression-free survival compared with fulvestrant alone in patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer, according to results of...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Yadav et al estimated the risk of contralateral breast cancer among patients with invasive breast cancer and germline pathogenic variants in ATM, BRCA1, BRCA2, CHEK2, and PALB2. Study Details The study population consisted of 15,104...
Many women with two or three cancerous lesions in the breast can safely undergo lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy, according to the results of a prospective phase II trial reported at the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 In this study, local recurrence rates after breast-conserving ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Olivia Pagani, MD, and colleagues, 13-year follow-up in a combined analysis of the phase III TEXT and SOFT trials has shown continued disease-free survival and distant recurrence–free interval benefit—but no overall survival benefit—with exemestane ...
Researchers have identified unique molecular features responsible for the development and progression of metastatic breast cancer, according to a novel study published by Garcia-Recio et al in Nature Cancer. They discovered that one of the key features involves changes in the immune system that are ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sjöström et al identified a 16-gene signature—Profile for the Omission of Local Adjuvant Radiation, or POLAR—that predicted low likelihood of benefit from adjuvant radiotherapy in preventing locoregional recurrence in patients with...
Researchers have found that measuring the activation of immune system B cells may be more effective than measuring the activation of either T cells or tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in predicting whether patients with HER2-positive breast cancer will respond to treatment. These findings were ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jayasekera et al identified the benefits and harms of using risk-reducing medication in addition to screening in patients with high-risk, estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer. As stated by the investigators, “Recent studies,...
Elacestrant—an investigational oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD)—achieved longer progression-free survival vs standard-of-care endocrine monotherapy as second- or third-line therapy in patients with estrogen receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer in the ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Prudence A. Francis, MD, and colleagues, 12-year results of the phase III SOFT trial show a maintained disease-free survival benefit with the addition of ovarian function suppression to adjuvant tamoxifen in premenopausal patients with hormone...
In a Chinese study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sun et al developed a risk prediction model (BRCA-CRisk) to assess the risk of contralateral breast cancer in patients with breast cancer and BRCA1/2 pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants. Study Details The model was developed in a...
Nearly one-fourth of patients with breast cancer who start breast reconstruction after mastectomy don't complete the reconstructive process. The concept of reconstructive burnout was introduced and discussed in a study published by Halani et al in the January issue of Plastic and Reconstructive...
In a Canadian phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Behroozian et al found that the use of Mepitel film—a silicone-based polyurethane film dressing—significantly reduced the incidence of grade 2 or 3 acute radiation dermatitis vs usual care in at-risk women receiving...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Garcia-Pelaez and colleagues found that presence of germline truncating pathogenic variants or likely pathogenic variants of CDH1 were associated with hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC) tumor risk syndrome–related cancer phenotypes (lobular breast...
As the population of women at increased risk for breast cancer grows, with an estimated 140,000 high-risk lesions diagnosed each year, “the landscape for surgical excision of high-risk lesions continues to evolve,” Melissa Pilewskie, MD, reported at the 2022 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium in...
“Risk-reducing bilateral mastectomy allows a woman with a high-penetrance breast cancer-causing mutation to avoid an encounter with the experience of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment,” Seema A. Khan, MD, MPH, stated at the 2022 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium.1 For these women, by avoiding...
Commenting on the DESTINY-Breast03 presentation at the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Neelima Vidula, MD, a medical oncologist at Mass General Cancer Center, said: “The results highlight the important survival differences of T-DXd [fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki] compared to T-DM1...
The antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) proved to be superior to the antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1), significantly improving progression-free survival and overall survival, in women with unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer as ...
Just days before the publication of the 2022 Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer on October 27, 2022,1 which showed a continued downward trend in cancer deaths, Karen Knudsen, MBA, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of the American Cancer Society (ACS), joined the First Lady Dr. Jill...
Aditya Bardia, MD, MPH, Director of Breast Cancer Research and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, and attending physician at Mass General Cancer Center, Boston, commented on the RIGHT Choice trial. Based on this study, he noted, few patients should be excluded from treatment with...
According to findings from the phase II RIGHT Choice trial, many premenopausal patients with metastatic hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer experiencing visceral crisis are best treated with first-line ribociclib plus endocrine therapy rather than with chemotherapy.1 Ribociclib,...